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Congress must tackle child poverty head on and expand the Child Tax Credit

The Census Bureau just released national poverty, income, and insurance data for 2023. It’s important to understand income and health insurance trends, but it’s especially important now since Congress will take up major tax legislation in 2025.

One thing we know for sure is that when the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was expanded in 2021, child poverty decreased by 46% overall, with Black and Hispanic/Latino child poverty falling by 6.3 percentage points in each community, impacting 716,000 Black children and 1.2 million Hispanic children. The new data shows that in 2023, the CTC lifted 2.4 million people above the federal poverty line―while important, falling far short of the 5.4 million lifted above the federal poverty line in 2021 by expanded monthly Child Tax Credit payments that included all children in low-income families.

Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.

Many people are facing food and housing insecurity, challenges with high child care costs, and dealing with other hardships that make it harder to make ends meet. Expanding the Child Tax Credit fixes a major flaw in current law: over 18 million children and their families are excluded from the full credit because their parents’ income is too low.

You read that right. Families where a parent can’t work due to illness or being laid off, cannot qualify for the Child Tax Credit at all. And many parents who work at low wages cannot get the full CTC. A single parent earning $15,000 a year and who has two children, will receive less than a family with a parent who has a higher paying job. This is a flaw that does nothing but exacerbate inequity and accelerate the racial wealth gap.

Instead of cutting investments in key programs and services, Congress must prioritize funding for human needs and that means passing an expanded Child Tax Credit that reaches the very poorest households.

Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.

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The 2020 Census: Why Ensuring a Fair and Accurate Count Matters

July 19, 2017 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

An archive of this webinar is available here.

This webinar co-sponsored by the Coalition on Human Needs, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Children’s Leadership Council, and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality.

The 2020 Census may seem like a long time away, but decisions are being made now in Washington that will affect the accuracy of the count.  In the past, the Census has undercounted young children, communities of color, and low income rural and urban households; very much related, immigrants also are at risk of disproportionate undercounting.  This matters a lot:  much federal funding is distributed by formulas based on population and income, and some communities will get less than they should if their residents are not accurately counted.  Further, congressional, state legislative, and municipal districts are re-drawn every ten years based on the Census count.  In 2020, for the first time, the Census Bureau will promote the Internet as the primary way to answer the census, which may increase the likelihood of an undercount in low-income communities.

In this webinar, learn from national Census experts about how we can protect and improve on the Census’ accuracy, so that low-income communities are not shortchanged.  This webinar will be useful for advocates and service providers working at the local, state, or federal levels.  If your communities receive funding based on federal or state formulas, this webinar is important to you.

Presenters:       

Terri Ann Lowenthal is a nationally recognized expert on the U.S. census. During a 14-year career as a congressional aide, she was staff director of the House census oversight subcommittee from 1987-94, and has advised the Census 2000 Initiative and The Census Project, Funders Census Initiative, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and business and industry data users.  She will describe how the 2020 Census will be used and the preparations for it going on now.

William O’Hare has more than forty years of experience in statistical analysis of social and demographic data.  Previously a Senior Consultant with the KIDS COUNT Project at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bill is the author of The Undercount of Young Children in the U.S. Decennial Census (SpringerBriefs in Population Studies).  Bill will explain about who is undercounted, with new state and local information and how advocates can use it.

Corrine Yu is Senior Counsel and Managing Policy Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and a leader in efforts to protect and improve the accuracy of the census.  She will describe action steps to make sure the Census is adequately funded and to prepare for the outreach needed in communities to get an accurate count.

Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, moderator.

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July 19, 2017
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2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
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